The energy solution for South Africa is DC power.

[gombault]

Thomas Edison lost the race against AC power back then. Today we would have had a completely different world of power if we had things like solar panels and led lights in those days. All our electronic appliances today are DC they are actually converted into AC. Many of our household appliances will work straight of DC. Converting to a solar DC powered house is a far cheaper option, as everything is already DC like the solar panels, batteries, led lights, laptops, mobile phones and many others. Things like kettles, toasters and other heating kitchen appliances will work directly of DC. Most of your household appliances use brushed motors that will also run straight of DC. Here in sunny South Africa every house can generate its own free power from its roof. Converting the DC power into high voltage AC is not the answer the power losses is too high. The problem today is that no one is making DC household appliances, the other problem is getting everyone to standardize on a voltage. I think 110V should be the standard as it’s already a voltage used, it’s also cheaper to go for a lower voltage because of battery and solar panels costs. I made special 24v led globes for my house that runs of solar panels and batteries using my existing house lights, wiring and switches. I contacted Eskom some time back about my lighting system and their response was DC is not their power and was not interested in my proposal of using it in low cost housing. If we just convert every houses light’s to solar then we will take a big load of the grid and no one will ever be without lights again.
See the end of AC and the beginning of DC for households power http://theenergycollective.com/steve...ering-dc-power

 

[ToxicBunny]

Yeah.. not gonna happen.. dream on.

 

[froot]

The force is not strong with this one.

There's a reason why AC trumped DC way back when.

 

[Magnum]

The force is not strong with this one.

There's a reason why AC trumped DC way back when.

And his name was N.T.

 

[PsyWulf]

Wasn't the primary issue the transmission of DC power over long distances anyway?

 

[xumwun]

DC can't go through a transformer, making transmission very difficult.

 

[Beachless]

Wasn't the primary issue the transmission of DC power over long distances anyway?

Thats a big issue with DC yes.

 

[phoneJunky]

The link doesn't work

 

[Hamish McPanji]

And his name was N.T.

I think he meant a technical reason. NT lost with a winning product because he was more interested in inventing **** than marketing it.

The other douche essentially ended up owning it and only historical records years later told us the truth.

 

[Arthur]

Apart from not being able to use transformers for more efficient transmission, DC also has the following problem:

"I give you another good reason against DC networks besides:
• fault prone and expensive semiconductors and capacitors
• overwhelming EMC hassle at all those chopper and PFC circuitry
• increased corrosion when leakage occurs

Safety. It is very difficult to build circuit breakers for high voltage / high current DC network. Fuses have to be five times as big for secure quenching of the arc. Switches need much bigger and elaborate blast chambers due to the capacitance of the grid and the totally different arcing behaviour."

 

[Hamish McPanji]

I don't really think we should spend a lot of time arguing such a fail article. While he does highlight a few good points....the gist of this article is a fail

 

[P924]

Losses of conversion with modern inverters using SiC technology is up to 98%, so not much losses. That and the fact that switch mode power supplies today have power factor correction that does not work well on DC. Brushed motors like drills and vacuum cleaners also run much less efficiently on DC and can easily overheat. So not really a good solution. Inverters should become a lot cheaper in the next 5 years.

 

[znh]

AC is what is generated by a generator turning in 3 phases at the power station, this is stepped up to 11KV to transmit over long distances, and stepped down to 240V single phase AC again outside your house. It is a cheap and simple solution with acceptible low losses.

It is not feasible to transmit DC over long distances, unless we are talking about a couple of Milion Volts (Like Lightning) and then it is not stable and will arc and lose charge.

The American standard of 110V has its own problems, Watts = Voltage X Current (Thus lower voltage requires higher current) our 240V is a better solution.
Nothing stops you from converting your house to DC but everything at the shops has its own power converter (and required voltage to operate). Btw your modern induction stove will not work with DC.

 

[Compton_effect]

Dc is a great idea. But so is the Dvorak keyboard. (Picture people fiercely Googling this)
Not gonna happen soon - sad to say.

 

[PsyWulf]

Dc is a great idea. But so is the Dvorak keyboard. (Picture people fiercely Googling this)
Not gonna happen soon - sad to say.

Actually seen this keyboard in action,tried it once,was like nope.jpg

 

[gombault]

For house applications you don’t want to transmit power over long distances, you only want to transmit it from your roof. It’s true that brushed motor that was designed for AC might overheat but if it was designed for DC then it would not. I don’t recommend DC for industrial 3 phase use or where you need to transmit power over long distances. An AC solar system will have to be massive to power a factory, far bigger than that factories roof. A house DC solar system can easily fit on a houses roof. Most of the appliances in your house that has transformers in them are because they must be converted back to a lower voltage DC. Many more won’t think that it’s a failed article, before any of you make more bad comments of the power l love I recommend you see: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/edisons-revenge-will-direct-current-make-a-comeback-in-us/

 

[ToxicBunny]

Still not going to happen..


Lets save 30% on the cost of installing solar at home because its a DC system... but have to spend 300% more on appliances and stuff.

 

[wetkit]

Just imagine the cost of copper cabling for DC allpications !!!
2kw kettle running on 240V AC will draw 8.3 Amp, so a 1,5mm copper cable is fine.
The same kettle running on 12V DC will draw 166.7 Amp, so a 50mm copper cable will be required. Cabling your house will cost more than the house itself

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Are inverters getting more efficient by the day?

I realize that these will not be 100% effective as you will still have a small % of loss due to heat and other factors. What is the sine wave output like? Is it comparable to the standard sine wave encountered on AC? Or is it a stepped sine wave?

FWIW I tried to power a modern laptop from an UPS - its power brick did not like the square wave sine of the UPS, and therefore did not charge the laptop...

 

[FNfal]

Apart from not being able to use transformers for more efficient transmission, DC also has the following problem:

"I give you another good reason against DC networks besides:
• fault prone and expensive semiconductors and capacitors
• overwhelming EMC hassle at all those chopper and PFC circuitry
• increased corrosion when leakage occurs

Safety. It is very difficult to build circuit breakers for high voltage / high current DC network. Fuses have to be five times as big for secure quenching of the arc. Switches need much bigger and elaborate blast chambers due to the capacitance of the grid and the totally different arcing behaviour."

^^^^ these are just a few reasons.
Op has obviously not done his home work on this one and not been trained in electricity .